Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed findings of UK-based research group Bellingcat which suggested that a group of Russian chemical weapons specialists were shadowing opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the time of his recent poisoning.
Speaking at his end-of-the-year news conference today, Putin suggested that the report was based on materials obtained from US intelligence services.
“This is not an investigation, this is the legalisation of materials of the US intelligence services.”
He also suggested that Navalny, to whom he referred to as “this patient of the Berlin clinic”, is getting support from the US special services.
“And if this is correct, then this is interesting. Then the special services certainly need to keep an eye on him,” Putin said.
“But this doesn’t mean he needs to be poisoned. Who cares about him?” he added with a laugh.
Russian pundit Abbas Gallyamov told Raven News, commenting on the president’s speech that “Putin intuitively understands that what had happened is a serious blow to the reputation of intelligence services… The lack of efficiency which they demonstrated, when their personal data was leaked to the enemy in fact ruins their reputation. And Putin is trying to save it.”
“Now Russia is in fact already the police state. Putin understands if he doesn’t do that [save the intelligence services’ reputation], people will stop fearing his secretive police, the regime will have no ground to stand on. And Putin attempted to prove that they are effective: ‘if they wanted to kill [Navalny], he would be already dead’.”
Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. He was first treated in a Russian hospital but then transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin following Putin’s personal intervention.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert later said in a statement that there was “unequivocal proof of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group” in Navalny’s system.
The nerve agent Novichok, which can roughly be translated from Russian as “newcomer”, was developed by the Soviet Union in 1970s-80s.
The substance is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997 and Russia previously said that it destroyed all its chemical weapons.
However, two years ago, the same Novichok group of nerve agents was used in the suspected poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
Both Skripal and his daughter survived the attack but the incident later claimed the life of UK citizen Dawn Sturges. She came into contact with a perfume bottle believed to be used in the attempt on the former spy’s life.
Bellingcat named two members of Russia’s GRU as the suspected attackers. They are both on a wanted list in the UK over the incident.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any role in the poisoning of both Skripal and Navalny, stating that no nerve agent was found in the latter’s body when he was treated on Russian soil.
Putin reportedly suggested in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron that Navalny might have poisoned himself in an elaborate attempt to discredit Russia.
Earlier this year, the UK imposed sanctions over the poisoning against several individuals and an entity believed to be behind the Novichok development.
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(Alexei Navalny and his wife posing with Bellingcat’s investigator Christo Grozev. Image credit: Navalny’s Instagram account)
The report on the FSB’s alleged role in Navalny’s poisoning is a joint effort by Bellingcat, Russia’s The Insider website, the US network CNN and Germany’s Der Spiegel.
It is the first media probe to name individuals who might have been implicated in the poisoning through analysis of what Bellingcat described as “voluminous telecom and travel data”.
Bellingcat says it established that Navalny had been under “years of surveillance” since he first announced his intention to run for president in 2017.
It says that three Russian operatives from a secretive forensic unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) were “in the vicinity of the opposition activist in the days and hours of the time range” when he was poisoned.
The Russian authorities were not quick to comment on the allegations in the report published on 14 December.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the first top official to dismiss the report, saying that “all this news is funny to read”.